Alongside several cathedrals and old churches, there are baptisteries with a large “vase” or tubs, like in Europe.
It is a symbol of the adult baptism, being plunged into the water, as an expression of his or her desire to die to the old man (as St. Paul says) and to be that new man, which means letting Christ live in them. Nowadays, some Christian sects still perform their baptism in rivers.
Baptism presupposes faith. In the case of infant baptism, the parents and godparents promise and guarantee the church that they will transmit this faith, by their words and actions, to the one baptized.
We may say that this faith is not their own (in the case of a child), but that of “their parents” who wish to make a gift of their encounter with Jesus to the child. It’s true that Baptism, as a sacrament, bestows on us the gift of the Spirit of Jesus, expressed in particular with the sign of chrism.
While not a sort of safe-conduct, baptism frees us from original sin, communicating the light and power of the Spirit that leads us to live according to Christ’s lifestyle.
However, the sacraments are not a magical substitute in order to show our adherence to Jesus, but they make our faith come alive and shine forth. That is why the church admits three forms of baptism: by water, which is the usual form, by desire, i.e. when there is no priest, where one dies with the desire to follow and receive faith in Christ, and lastly by blood—when one dies or is killed because of his faith in Christ.
In Amoris Laetitiae, the recent Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Pope Francis talks about the sacrament of marriage in this way: “The sacrament is not a thing or a power, for in it Christ himself now encounters Christian spouses… He dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens.” (AL 73)
I think this is also true with the sacrament of baptism. Baptism brings with it a grace, the grace of encounter with Jesus, not only for the child, but also for its parents, a grace which encourages parents to celebrate and witness to their children their own love for Christ through their lives, and the love of Christ in their lives.
We wish to end with another quote from Amoris Laetitiae: “A pregnant woman can participate in God’s plan by dreaming of her child. For nine months every mother and father dreams about their child… You can’t have a family without dreams.
Once a family loses the ability to dream, children do not grow, love does not grow, life shrivels up and dies. For Christian married couples, baptism necessarily appears as a part of that dream. With their prayers, parents prepare for baptism, entrusting their baby to Jesus even before he or she is born.” (AL 169)
